


Holy Titan...

by theoorsomething



Category: The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, Wayfarers Series - Becky Chambers
Genre: Bisexuality, Cuddling & Snuggling, F/M, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, M/M, Multi, Polyamorous Character, Polyamory, Polyamory Negotiations, Saturn - Freeform, The Saturn Colony Sucks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-26
Updated: 2020-08-26
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:41:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26128204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theoorsomething/pseuds/theoorsomething
Summary: Corbin and Pei are...very different, but they can find one common interest: Ashby.
Relationships: Ashby Santoso/Artis Corbin, Ashby Santoso/Gapei Tem Seri, Gapei Tem Seri & Artis Corbin
Comments: 2
Kudos: 15





	Holy Titan...

Pei was… an interesting woman, Corbin had noted. She had arrived on the Wayfarer just a few moments ago, and already she was making her rounds, saying hello to all his crewmates. She hugged Sissix, then Kizzy, then turned to face Corbin.

“Is this…?”

“Artis Corbin, our algaeist.” Ashby says it with a hint of pride, wrapping an arm around Pei’s shoulders as she shakes Corbin’s hand.

“A pleasure to finally meet you… are you embarrassed?”

He blinks, confused. “Should I be?”

“You’re quite pink. Ashby said once that when humans are embarrassed, they turn that colour. Well, that or you’re lustful.”

Well, _now_ he was embarrassed, his face lighting up a more vibrant pink than before. He can hear Kizzy doing a spit take of her fizz, laughing loudly. He looks back and forth between Pei and Ashby frantically.

“No, no, I wasn’t— I’m not— Saturn…” He stammers, a mix of flustered and angry. Pei lets out a robotic sound, probably a laugh jumbled in her talkbox, and her cheeks turn a sly shade of green.

“I’m joking, Mr. Corbin. So, you’re _the_ algaeist…” The way she says it makes it sound like he’s the only algaeist alive, or at the very least, the only important one. It feels nice, the acknowledgement of his talent. “Mind giving me a tour of your lab?”

Ashby stirs into action. “Oh, of course, we can—”

“ _You_ need to get cleaned up for dinner tonight. I’d like Mr. Corbin to give me the tour.”

“Just Corbin is fine,” He says, nodding politely. “I can bring her down to the lab on my own, Captain, we’ll be okay.” Using Ashby’s title feels wrong, Corbin would much prefer to call him by his name, but he’s not sure how formal the Aeluons are with their captains, and he gets the impression that he should be polite around Pei.

Ashby nods. “Alrighty then.”

“Well then, Just Corbin, lead the way.”

* * *

The moment Corbin enters the algae bay, he gets distracted by his vats of fuel and piles of samples.

“You like Ashby.” Pei says. He can’t tell if it’s meant to be a question, but he answers anyway.

“Yes, he’s an adequate captain.” He pushes his glasses up and looks through the microscope.

“That’s not what I mean. I tried to be subtle, but I see you’re too… dense. You _love_ Ashby.”

Corbin drops the sample he’s holding. “I beg your pardon?”

“You love Ashby. I can see it in the way you looked at him. You made the same face to him when I entered that Ashby makes when I’m doing something dangerous… the ‘I love you but you’re making a terrible mistake’ look.”

“I don’t think you’re a mistake, Miss.”

“No, but you think coupling between species is dangerous, perhaps even wrong. You think he’d be safer with a human, and you wish it were you.” Pei was right about the first part, there was no denying how dangerous their relationship was, especially in their career field. But… certainly Corbin didn’t _love_ Ashby. Hell, back on Saturn, a relationship between 2 men might as well be interspecies, with how unheard of it was.

“I… don’t think he’d be safer with me. The whole crew hates me, and I-” The words _hate them too_ stick to his tongue. He doesn’t hate them, but wouldn’t it be so much easier if he did? “I wouldn’t be good for him, even if I loved him in that way.”

“Could you teach me a bit about human culture?” Pei walked towards him and smiled, her cheeks that same shade of green from earlier. Corbin was taken aback by the subject change, although he had to admit he appreciated it.

“Alright…”

“Do humans often think of or audibly mention their friends during sexual intercourse?” She says it simply, like that isn’t the weirdest question Corbin has ever been asked.

“What?! No… no they- what?”

She smiles. “Humour me for a moment, Corbin. If someone were to mention their friend during an intimate moment with someone else, would you suspect that person was sexually interested in their friend?”

“Well...I suppose it depends? Context is key…”

“And what if the context was Ashby, red in the face, sweating and panting beneath me, saying that he was glad you weren’t planetside so you didn’t see him in this position?”

Corbin goes pink (well, more pink than normal), his mind wandering for a moment. He sucks in a long shaky breath and collects his thoughts. “There could be many reasons. Perhaps he said that because he was thinking about his crew out loud and he wouldn’t trust us to see him in a vulnerable state…”

“Yes, but no one who came planetside with him met up with us there. His statement seemed to imply that if you had joined the crew, you would have joined us in our room that night.”

“...What night was this?”

“October 26, why do you ask?”

Corbin sighs. “The night before, we were— I must have still been on his mind.”

Pei turns a colour that Corbin _thinks_ means she’s curious. He clears his throat.

“We had been drinking the night before, in celebration, and had fallen asleep in each other’s arms. Nothing… too _intimate_ , not in that way anyway, but he must have thought of it when you were… well…”

Pei nods. “You know, I understand that I can’t provide everything for him. He needs someone who can be with him full time, not just a hidden long distance partner. If that’s something you’re interested in providing for him, I give you my blessing—”

* * *

Ashby finished setting the table for Dr. Chef, looking over the name tags he had printed for special occasions. Sissix on one side of his chair, Pei on the other side, with the other crewmates all spread around the circular table.

“Tycho, patch me through to Corbin.” The AI beeped and fulfilled the request. The dining hall’s vox sprung to life, filling the room with Pei and Corbin’s voices.

“I give you my blessing—”

“You don’t need to give me your anything, we are not, under any circumstance, telling Ashby how I feel about him.”

If Ashby hadn’t heard Pei’s side of the conversation, he would have assumed the always angry Corbin was upset with him over something, but with his girlfriend’s supposed blessing, the phrase took on a different connotation. _How Corbin feels about him…_

“Corbin? Pei?” He spoke up. There was a sound of what might have been glass being crushed under boot, then a response.

“Yes?” Corbin replied, as if he hadn’t just been practically hissing at Pei.

“Dinner is ready.” Some whispers, then a response from Pei.

“Your chef has made sure to cater to my… differences, yes?”

Ashby nods, then remembers she can’t see him. “Yes, he’s very good with that sort of thing. Made sure to make something you like too, Corbin, he knows you can be… fussy. Not that that’s a bad thing! Just… wanted to let you know.”

The two thank him, then the vox crackles off.

He looks down at the name tags and quietly swaps Corbin and Sissix’s cards.

* * *

The Wayfarer’s algaeist finished sweeping up the remains of his broken sample dish and began walking into the hallway. “Do you think he—”

“No, Corbin, he would have said something if he had.”

If you were a stranger, looking into the Wayfarer for the first time, this duo might strike you as odd. They were both tall, but Pei carried herself gracefully, whereas Corbin slouched and his limbs looked too long for his hunched over torso. She was covered in iridescent scales, and he had almost sickly pale pink skin. She was bald, with a shiny scalp, and he had a messy nest of hair, streaked with grey despite being a young man. Corbin, looking at Pei, wondered if she was right about Ashby. After all, if she was his type, how could Corbin possibly be?

They arrive after a few moments of awkward silence and take their seats, the unresolved tension and unease filling Ashby’s chair between them. Everyone else enters and sits, making small talk and pouring drinks as the food is served and Dr Chef and Ashby join them at the table.

* * *

After the meal (and not one but _three_ separate incidents of Kizzy accidentally flinging her food at Ashby and Corbin), Pei and Corbin stay to help clean up.

Pei scrubs at the dishes, smiling at her partner, whistling and dancing around with a damp rag, cleaning the table and counters.

“Ashby, what are your views on same sex coupling?”

Corbin almost drops the cleaning bot he’s examining, turning to glare at Pei behind his now smudged glasses (Kizzy and her damn grounder potatoes…).

“I don’t have anything against it, if that’s what you’re asking. Most humans don’t, there’s only specific colonies, like-” Ashby doesn’t finish his sentence, but Corbin can practically hear it: _‘like Saturn.’_

Saturn… A human colony where romantic (and sexual) relationships were only formed for the sake of reproduction; it was out of place with the rest of humankind, but unfortunately, it was home for Corbin, so Ashby and the rest of the crew tried avoiding conversation about it.

“Yes, I assumed that. I mean for you personally.”

“Ah. I’d have no problem with it… Pei, if this is you telling me that you’re male, you could have just said so.”

Pei laughs. “No, Ash, I’m female… I’m just curious. New question: would you ever consider being with multiple partners?”

Corbin sighs. He had told her they _weren’t_ going to tell Ashby; if this was her version of secrecy, she was terrible at it.

“Does this have anything to do with the blessing you gave Corbin?”

Pei grimaces. Well, so much for her (terrible) attempt at subtlety. “...Maybe?”

Ashby turns around to see Corbin trying to sneak out of the room. “Artis. Here. Now.”

Corbin sighs and turns around. “Didn’t have to use the first name…”

“We’re going to… discuss this like civilized adults. All 3 of us, _Corbin_.” Ashby gestures for them to join him in the dining room.

* * *

“How much did you hear?” Corbin is sitting awkwardly in his chair, wringing his hands.

“Just the last two lines or so…” Ashby takes a sip of his mek and looks up at Corbin, then Pei, then back to the algaeist. “What did you mean by ‘how you feel about me’?”

“That should be obvious, thanks to Pei.” He glares at her.

“It isn’t my fault you need me to share your emotions for you!”

“I _didn’t,_ that’s why I’m upset—”

“Both of you, stop fighting! Stars, you’d think Sissix was in here.” Ashby leans back in his chair. “Corbin, I want to hear it from you.”

“I… I like you. Is that what you wanted to hear? Are you satisfied?”

Ashby lets out a long sigh. “Are you saying that to make me happy or because you actually do?”

“Can’t it be both?”

Pei’s cheeks shift from the annoyed purple to that same curious colour from earlier (Or was it anticipation? Did those have different colours?).

Ashby looks at him, confused. “How can it be both?”

“I do like you...love you, maybe, but I’m only _telling_ you because you’re asking me to.” Corbin’s still annoyed at Pei, Ashby, and himself, or at least he’s trying to be. It’s hard when Ashby’s sitting across from him, mouth hanging open slightly in surprise, dark eyes wide and twinkling. Damn that man and his ability to override Corbin’s emotions.

“Ah. That… makes sense.” Ashby nods.

“Great… Now, if I’m free to leave,” Corbin starts, grumbling.

“Your plants can wait, shrimp.” Ashby smirks.

_Shrimp._ Ashby must be really confident if he’s pulling that out; it was a teasing nickname used on Saturn for the pinkest (or youngest, depending on who you asked) of a family. A playful poke at Corbin’s culture.

“...Fine.”

“Corbin, I care about you, but if this,” He gestures between them, “is going to happen? We need to set some ground rules. Pei, could you go… socialize with the rest of the crew?”

Pei nods, standing. “Good luck, Corbin. Don’t let him ramble for too long.” She plants a kiss on Ashby’s cheek, then exits.

* * *

Ashby sighs. “Firstly, no matter how serious my relationship with you becomes, my duty as Captain comes before my duty as your partner. If you are in the wrong, I can’t let myself be biased in your favour and let down my crew.”

“Ashby, are you… considering this? You _actually_ want this to happen… between us?”

“I think it would be good for me. If you want this, that is.”

Corbin goes silent for a moment. He thinks back to his home planet, the colony’s unspoken rules on loving other men… If his father somehow received news about this, in his little cell, he’d be very disappointed. That, on its own, was enough to convince Corbin.

“I do.”

“Okay. Secondly, no more calling Sissix _that word._ She’s a sister to me and I won’t tolerate you disrespecting her like that anymore.”

Corbin nods. “I’ve been… trying to do better. She saved my life, I owe her that much.”

Ashby nods too. “We’re… doing this.”

“We are…”

* * *

It was a weird experience, laying snug between his two partners, but Ashby certainly didn’t mind it. Pei’s nose was pressed against his cheek, her arms around his shoulders. Corbin was a little further down, with his back to Ashby’s hipbone and his hair tickling the side of Ashby’s bare chest, his glasses still on but askew.

Tycho beeps. “Sissix would like to see you, Captain.”

He sighs. “One moment,” He whispers.

“She’s outside your door.” Well, shit.

“Alright… she can come in.” The AI beeps again, and Sissix enters. Her eyes scan from Ashby’s sleepy face down to Corbin at his side. She nods.

“I see you’re busy…” She notes.

“Not too busy for you, Sis.”

She smiles. “Grab your scrib, I’ll message you from my room. Don’t want to discuss it here in case either of them wake up.”

“They won’t wake up,” Ashby says. Just then, Corbin makes a muffled sound, rolling over and hitting his spectacles gently on Ashby’s stomach. “Okay, _he_ might wake up, I think he’s a light sleeper.”

Sissix laughs quietly. “Are you and Corbin…?” If the men were Aandrisks, it wouldn’t be irregular for them to be cuddling, but they’re _human_ , and it’s _Corbin_ , he’s not exactly known for his affectionate nature…

“We’re… something. Like you and Rosemary.”

Sissix laughs, nodding.

“What are you laughing at?”

“I told Rosemary you needed Corbin, but I didn’t know just how true that was.”

Ashby rolls his eyes, taking a hand and combing through Corbin’s tangled hair with his fingers. “Yeah… You aren’t mad, are you?”

“Not at all.” Sissix reaches for the door. “If you’re happy, then I am. Corbin is… an ass, but I know he won’t hurt you, not on purpose.”

He nods. “Thanks, Sis. I’ll get my scrib.” Sissix smiles, then exits.

Corbin mumbles something like ‘Holy Titan’ in his sleep and Ashby laughs quietly, planting a kiss on the top of his head.

It was weird, laying between his two very different partners, but now that Ashby had experienced it, he wouldn’t trade it for the galaxy.


End file.
